CHAPTER IV.

THE JIMMYJOHNS’ SAILOR-SUITS.

THIS chapter will tell why Mrs. Plummer had to sew very odd-looking patches on the Jimmyjohns’ sailor-suits. It will also tell what boy cut holes in those sailor-suits, and why he cut them, and when; and will show, that, at the time it was done, the three boys were in great danger.

It was on a Monday morning that people first took notice that the Jimmies’ trousers were patched in a curious manner. Johnny was carrying the new dog, and Jimmy was taking hold of Johnny’s hand. After Rover was lost, the twins had a new dog given them, named Snip. He was the smallest dog they ever saw: but he was a dog; he was not a puppy. Mr. Plummer brought him home in his pocket one day, two weeks after Rover went away. It was Rover, you know, that ran off with poor little Polly Cologne. People talked so much to him about this piece of mischief, that at last he began to feel ashamed of himself; and, as soon as Polly Cologne’s name was mentioned, he would slink into a corner, and hide his head. One day Annetta showed him an apron that poor little Polly used to wear,—it was a bib-apron,—and said to him, “St’boy! Go find her! Don’t come back till you find her!”

The bib-apron was about three inches long. Rover caught it in his mouth, and away he went, and—did not come back. They looked for him far and near; they put his name in the newspapers; but all in vain. The apron was found sticking to a bramble-bush, about a mile from home; but nothing could be seen or heard of Rover. There was a circus in town that day, and he might have gone off with that. Perhaps he was ashamed to come back. Little Mr. Tompkins, the lobster-seller, thinks the dog understood what Annetta said, and that he may be, even now, scouring the woods, or else sniffing along the streets, peeping into back-yards, down cellar-ways, up staircases, in search of poor Polly Cologne.

Mr. Tompkins was among the very first to notice the sailor-suits. He met the twins that morning as he was wheeling along his lobsters, and quickly dropped his wheelbarrow, and sat down on one of the side-boards. Being a small, slim man, he could sit there as well as not without tipping the wheelbarrow over.

Mr. Tompkins wore short-legged pantaloons and a long-waisted coat. The reason of this was, that he had short legs and (for his size) a long waist. His coat was buttoned up to his chin. His cap had a stiff visor, which stood out like the awning of a shop. He had a thin face, a small nose, small eyes, and a wide mouth; and he wore a blue apron with shoulder-straps.

“What’s happened to your trousers, eh?” asked little Mr. Tompkins. His way of speaking was as sharp and quick as Snip’s way of barking. “Say, what’s happened to your trousers?”

The trousers were patched in this way: Jimmy’s had a long strip on the left leg: Johnny’s had a round patch above each knee, one being much farther up than the other.

“Oh, yes! I see,—I see how it is,” said Mr. Tompkins. “Your mother did that so as to tell you apart. Oh, yes! Yes, yes! Very good! Johnny Shortpatch, Jimmy Longpatch; or Jimmy Shortpatch, Johnny Longpatch,—which is it?”

“She didn’t do so for that,” said Johnny, and then Jimmy after him. Johnny was commonly the first to speak.

“She didn’t?” cried Mr. Tompkins: “then what did she do so for?”

“Perhaps to tell which is good, and which is naughty,” said a lady who had stopped to look on.

Then the butcher’s boy stepped up, and _he_ wanted to know about the trousers. Then a woman looked out of the window, and _she_ wanted to know about the trousers. Then a great black dog came up, and he smelt of the trousers, which made Snip snap his teeth. Then came a flock of school-children, and they had something to say. “Halloo!” “What’s up?” “What’s the matter with all your trousers?” “Hoo, hoo!” “How d’ye do, Mr. Patcherboys?”

Now, the truth was, that Amos Dyke cut holes in those trousers with his jack-knife. It happened in this way: The Jimmies, the Saturday before that Monday, started from home to spend a cent at Mr. Juniper’s store. They had, in the first place, two cents; but one was lost. They got those two cents by having a show in the barn. The price for going in to see the show was four pins. The Jimmies sold the pins to the funny man. He gave a cent for sixteen straight ones, but would take no crooked ones at any price. Sometimes the Jimmies tried to pound the crooked ones straight on a stone. Their pins, that Saturday, came to nearly a cent and three-quarters; and the funny man made it up to two. Jimmy let his fall on the barn-floor; and Johnny, in helping him find it, hit it accidentally with his toe, and knocked it through a crack. Then Mrs. Plummer said they would have to divide between them what was bought with the other cent.

The little boys left home to go to Mr. Juniper’s store at half-past two o’clock in the afternoon, taking Snip with them. Probably, if they had not taken him with them, all would have been well.

In passing a garden, they looked through the pickets, and saw a kitten racing along the paths. Snip was after her in a moment.

“Now, you stay and take care of Snip,” said Johnny to Jimmy, “and I’ll go spend the cent, and bring your half here.” And just so they